If there's one thing we can count on with a new Tekken game, it's top-notch fighting action with a cast of insane characters. If there's a second thing we can count on, it's a street-rat crazy plot that somehow manages to string all of that punching and kicking together. Tekken 7's latest trailer proves that the latest game in the series will offer all of the above.
Until recently, most fighting games didn't really bother with having a narrative to drive the action. Whether you're talking about Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat or anything in between, the most you could usually hope for was a bit of info on each of the game's pugilists explaining why they're taking part in these latest brawls, and maybe a vague description of what's going on in the game world to bring everyone together again.
But while many fighting franchises have started putting more of an emphasis on story, Tekken has been doing so for a bit longer than the rest of the pack. That's not to say we're talking about engrossing narratives or anything like that, just that the series creators have a solid idea of who their characters are and what's going on in their world, even if the rest of us can hardly make heads or tails of it.
That's not a complaint, though. The campy nature of the Tekken story is something we appreciate and, based on this latest trailer, it's alive and well in the series' latest installment.
The whole thing begins with just some images of a bunch of Tekken cast members punching each other in the face to the beat of the trailer's soundtrack. We eventually start to get glimpses of the story that will be at the heart of this offering, featuring shots of a massive city, what appears to be nuclear warheads, as well as a showdown between two of the fighting genre's most legendary baddies. There is what appears to be a demon rising out of a volcano, a dude rising from a grave, a bunch of ninja breaking into a house, as well as a child being tossed into a grave. Maybe folks more versed in Tekken lore understand what all of this means but, for us, we're just happy to see the tale is alive and well in Tekken 7.
For us, the real treat comes at the end of the trailer, when the cinematic stuff gives way to actual in-game fighting. The characters look great, the arenas look diverse and the actual fighting looks as intense as it has ever been.
Without a hard release date set just yet, you can expect to play Tekken 7 in "early 2017."
